Farmed Atlantic salmon has a very bright future in South Korea, with the market capable of reaching 100,000 metric tons (MT) by 2030 as more and more consumers are drawn to its “delicious flavor” and increasingly recognize it as a “sustainable protein choice,” according to Dongwon Industries President and CEO Myoung Woo Lee.
Despite the market pressures brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, South Korea imported 40,000 metric tons (MT) of salmon last year, continuing the 11 percent per annum market growth seen since 2016, Lee said during a talk at the 2021 North Atlantic Seafood Forum (NASF).
In February this year, Seoul, South Korea-based Dongwon entered into a joint-venture agreement with Norwegian on-land salmon farmer Salmon Evolution for the construction of a land-based fish farm in Yangyang, in the north of South Korea, that will utilize Salmon Evolution’s flowthrough technology.
“We are expecting the first production to yield 10,000 MT by 2025. By 2030, we will seek to produce 20,000 MT,” Lee said.
Dongwon has been known for tuna, having grown from a small operation with just one longline vessel in 1969 into the largest tuna-fishing company in the world. It currently operates 39 tuna-fishing vessels operating around the globe, and its annual tuna catch is in excess of 200,000 MT. The company's annual revenues are above USD 3 billion (EUR 2.5 billion), Lee said.
Dongwon sees a lot of opportunities in Korean salmon aquaculture, Lee said, noting that land-based production was the “logical” choice for Dongwon.
"[While Norway] has been blessed with beautiful fjords that enable cage farming, unfortunately, we do not have the exact same blessings,” he said. “Instead, we have rough seas, without fjords, that do not allow for cage farming."
However, South Korea’s deep seas allow surface-water and deep sea-water to mix and to provide the right temperature for salmon farming.
“Inland farming is still a very big challenge, but we believe there is a beauty to it,” Lee said. "Through inland farming we can minimize the potential negative impacts and the risks associated with cage farming. Another benefit is reducing food milage and CO2 emissions from product transportation. Salmon is mainly brought in by air to maintain its freshness. However, air transportation is known for its heavy CO2 emissions, with about 120 million kilograms of CO2 emitted in the process of salmon imports every year. Local production could mitigate this environmental pollution.”
Providing fresh fish to its Korean clientele is a point of pride for Dongwon, Lee said.
“Most importantly, we can provide very fresh fish to our customers in Korea. We aim to deliver our products to the tables of our customers within 24 hours of slaughter. We believe this could increase the general public’s preference for Atlantic salmon even further, ultimately expanding the market for Atlantic salmon as a whole,” he said.
Korea’s high seafood consumption – some 58.4 kilograms per capita – also offers opportunities for other Norwegian species, with demand for mackerel also growing rapidly, Lee said.
“Salmon is not the end of the road for us. We wish to expand into other Norwegian archipelagic species as well,” he said. “Tuna are highly migratory species that cannot breathe unless they keep swimming. Just like the tuna, we have never stopped our movement. We continue to challenge ourselves.”
Photo courtesy of Kannapon.SuperZebra/Shutterstock
